Motunrayo Akinola is the 13th South London Gallery Postgraduate Artist in Residence.
Akinola is a London-based artist who uses images of the home and everyday materials to explore comfort and belonging. He creates sculptures, installations, sound and drawings. He studied at RA Schools, graduating in 2023.
Knees Kiss Ground was Akinola’s 2024 exhibition exploring faith and belonging through everyday objects. The show features new work made during the six-month residency. He draws upon his architectural background to examine ideas around space, comfort, nostalgia, ownership and post-colonial power dynamics. Through installation, light and sculpture, he explores how different materials can trigger emotions and memories. Visitors entered an immersive installation constructed entirely from corrugated cardboard to replicate the exact dimensions of a shipping container.
On Friday 31 May 2024, Akinola presented a new participatory live performance at the gallery. Titled Footwash Screening (First) Interview, the performance expanded on themes in the exhibition.
As a British-born Nigerian who has spent time in and now feels comfortable in both countries, Akinola’s work exposes the nuanced differences between the two places. During the residency his research will explore nostalgia, post-colonial power dynamics and the psychology of ownership. Akinola is interested in attitudes born from colonisation that linger in the present. By observing subtle slips in culture, he intends to come to a new understanding around the ownership of space.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
The South London Gallery Postgraduate Residency is an open submission six-month residency that provides an early-career artist with a rare opportunity to produce a new body of work, which is then exhibited at the SLG. The residency is open to artists who have completed a BA, and have undertaken a period of self-directed, peer-led or postgraduate study in the year prior to the residency. This can include alternative, peer organised and non-accredited programmes from an institution, collective or art school in the UK as well as an MA, MFA, PGDip, MRes.
The residency includes a studio space, a £5,000 artists fee, a housing bursary to cover accommodation in London, a budget to produce new work, mentoring, and a solo exhibition in one of the SLG Fire Station galleries.
The Postgraduate Residency is supported by the Paul and Louise Cooke Endowment. The exhibition will tour to Bonington Gallery in January 2025.
Motunrayo Akinola, Knees Kiss Ground, 2024. South London Gallery. Photo: Jo Underhill
Motunrayo Akinola, Knees Kiss Ground, 2024. South London Gallery. Photo: Jo Underhill
Motunrayo Akinola, Footwash Screening (First) Interview, 2024. South London Gallery. Images by Sam Nightingale
